


A Kiss for the Road

by estelraca



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Kissing, M/M, Post-Series, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-23 20:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20211409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estelraca/pseuds/estelraca
Summary: Five times Ankh considers what living and kissing mean, and one time Eiji does the same.  Spoilers through the very end of the series.





	A Kiss for the Road

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KazuoKiriyama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazuoKiriyama/gifts).

> I absolutely love OOO and am thrilled to have gotten a chance to play in this world again! I hope you enjoy the little vignettes. Thanks for some lovely prompts!

1.

They aren't human and they aren't alive.

They've known that since their creation, of course. Or perhaps since their _awakening_. Since those who crafted the bits of them decided to destroy a portion, leaving them forever hungry and _wanting_ and empty. But it's interesting, watching the bits of humanity that they've learned, the parts that have either rubbed off on them or that were etched into them accidentally by those bastard creators.

"I just wanted the apples." Gamel turns in a slow circle, studying the swath of destruction he's left in his wake. He sounds so _young_.

They are so young, really. None of them are more than a year old, though due to the unnatural form of their creation and the desires of their four creators they know more than any human one-year-old could dream of.

Mezool walks up to Gamel, her hands out to show she isn't threatening him. "It's all right, Gamel. I know you just wanted the sweets. And they should have just given them to you."

"That's right!" Gamel brightens, rushing to Mezool and resting his head against her shoulder. "It's their fault. They shouldn't have screamed and thrown things."

"They shouldn't have." Mezool presses a kiss to the top of Gamel's head, rubbing his back in comfort. "It's all their fault."

There are over a dozen dead bodies trampled into the ground around them. Only the tree that Ankh is perched in has survived, and he thinks that's more because the humans were as terrified of him as they were of Gamel than because of any choices on Gamel's part.

The King thinks the Greeed are ready for harvest—ready to give him the power he has been craving. Ankh knows this will destroy the other Greeed, but he's beginning to think it doesn't matter. They aren't human and they aren't alive, and perhaps it's better they stopped pretending they were.

2.

"What do you think it means to be alive?" Ankh asks the question idly, turning a glass around and around on the counter.

Chiyoko blinks, pausing where she's cleaning. It's currently just the two of them inside Cous Coussier—Eiji and Hina have run out to pick up a few things that Chiyoko asked them for, but Ankh didn't feel like going. Setting her washrag aside, Chiyoko perches both elbows on the counter. "Eh?"

"What do you think it means to be alive?" Ankh raises his eyes from the glass in front of him to study her. He doesn't understand the woman—can't believe that she's decided to bother with him and Eiji just because they're _here_, on the flimsiest of excuses. Why should Eiji saying he's well-traveled matter? Why should Eiji's story about Ankh having had a difficult childhood matter to her? Why should Hina looking so lost and being able to lift boxes be enough to get her a job?

"Start with the easy questions, why don't you." Chiyoko puffs her cheeks out for a moment and then shakes her head. "I think it means something different to everyone, but at the base I think it means... it means having connections to people. It means _mattering_ to people, and people mattering to you. That's what I think it means to be alive."

Ankh stares at the woman, then picks up his glass and takes a sip. Stealing Shingo's flesh was the most glorious decision he ever made, because he can _taste_ the sweet of the soda, _feel_ it bubbling on his tongue. "That's a stupid answer."

"Oh?" Chiyoko laughs, picking up her washrag and shrugging. "What do _you_ think it means?"

Ankh takes another drink, swirling the sweet, sweet liquid around in his mouth. "I don't know. Something untouchable, I think."

Chiyoko reaches out, taking the hand that isn't currently holding his drink. She raises it to her lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. "There's nothing untouchable here, Ankh. Something sharp, but not untouchable."

Ankh can feel the warmth of her breath, the lingering moisture from her lips. He stares at his knuckles, eyebrows drawn together. "Stupid."

Chiyoko laughs. "Living is that, too."

Taking his drink, Ankh retreats to one of the far tables, no longer trusting himself to predict this human's behavior.

3.

"Ankh!"

Ankh hesitates, just for a moment. He's not sure why he does. It's not like the woman means anything to him. She's been interesting, for sure. More helpful than not, at least for now, but that's only to be expected. He's wearing her brother's body, after all—keeping her brother alive and reaping the benefits of it at the same time.

"Be careful, all right?" Hina reaches out, touching the very edge of his sleeve, her fingers carefully not in contact with his skin. "Just... remember to eat well, and be careful of traffic, and... just be careful, all right?"

"What's this about?" Ankh crosses his arms, pulling his sleeve out of Hina's grasp—his _right_ sleeve, the one where _his_ arm hides beneath Shingo's human skin. "I'm not fresh out of the coffin, and even then I had enough knowledge to survive."

"I just..." Hina draws a breath, squaring her shoulders and lifting her eyes to study him. "You're wearing my brother's body, right?"

Ankh sneers. "I noticed. I've kept him alive so far. I'll let you know if I intend to change that."

"Really?" Hina continues to study him. "Would you do that for me now?"

Ankh blinks, caught off guard both by the question and by the fact that he's fairly certain the answer is _yes_. When did he decide that? When did this woman start mattering to him? All he wants to do is go out and have some time to himself, and here she's making everything _confusing_.

Hina smiles, and it's an expression Ankh doesn't quite understand, one she seems to invariably save for him. It's an expression of sorrow, and of affection, and of _knowing_, though he doesn't understand what it is she thinks she knows.

Leaning in, Hina presses a kiss to his cheek. It's barely a touch, but it seems to burn him to the core, freezing him in place anyway.

In other places, it wouldn't be such a big deal. In some countries, Ankh knows, siblings kiss lip-to-lip on a regular basis. One sibling giving another a kiss on the cheek shouldn't even register. Except here, between two adults, when one of them has _him_ turning them into a marionette—

Ankh gives himself a shake. It's just lingering reactions from Shingo, he tells himself. It's just this body reacting to something familiar.

"Be careful, Ankh." Hina runs her fingers over his right hand as she steps away, and then she turns to head back into the Cous Coussier.

Ankh walks into the darkness, wondering exactly when everything started getting so complicated.

4.

"He just kissed him." Ankh points between Date and Gotou.

"Yes." Satonaka checks her watch. "I'm being paid not to care for another hour. After that I just won't care period."

Ankh really shouldn't have expected anything else out of the woman. He continues to stare at Date and Gotou. He's not sure which of the two men is more surprised—Date that Gotou kissed him, or Gotou that Date is not only kissing his back but _pushing_ him back, wrapping him in a tight embrace.

"I don't understand." Ankh watches both of the Birth Riders, feeling something warm and strange inside him. Is it something happening with his damaged Medal? Is it a sign that he's going to die soon?

"I think they've finally come to understand that they're both alive, that they're both here, and that there's a decent possibility the world's going to end soon." Satonaka sounds remarkably bored by all of these statements. "So they're making the most of things. No skin off my back."

"They're in love?" Ankh feels like an idiot asking for clarification.

"That or they just want—" Satonaka lifts her eyes from her fingernails to look at him and stops whatever she was going to say. She turns to study the two men where they're no longer kissing, instead just hugging each other. If Ankh didn't know better he'd swear there were tears on Gotou's cheeks. "I think they do, yes. As much as two people ever love each other."

"Well." Ankh turns away from the two men, feeling like he's seeing something personal. "That's good, then. Glad someone's having a good time right now."

As Eiji trades away his humanity, as Ankh decides how willing he really is to die in order to prove he's alive, as Maki moves closer and closer to breaking the world... it shouldn't matter compared to any of that, but still Ankh finds he really means it.

If someone can be happy... if someone can feel alive in all the best ways... then Ankh is glad of it.

5.

It isn't a kiss.

It's _more_ than a kiss. Giving Eiji the medal that contains his very _self_, having the OOOs Driver twist and pull that self so that it becomes shield and sword for Eiji, it's the most intimate Ankh can imagine being with someone.

No. That's no longer true, and he thinks it matters, right now, that he's truthful. If these are going to be his last minutes, if this is going to be his end, then he wants to be _himself_, as purely and fully as he can be.

He is glad to be here with Eiji. He is going to miss so much—he _wants_ so much, including to _live_, to dive down out of the clouds to hug Hina and snark at Chiyoko and tell Date and Gotou how dumb they've been—but still he is glad to be here. He is glad to be the skin standing between Eiji and the attacks that would flay him open.

He is happier still to be the sword that slices through their enemy, the wings that keep them aloft, the talons that can rip and rend.

He is the whisper in Eiji's ear helping guide them to victory, and they do the impossible. They save everything they needed to save... and Eiji, at least, is able to walk away.

If the medal didn't break.

If he were able to take his human form... or would he prefer to be in his Greeed form, to not have Shingo's face as a buffer?

If there were a future—

Except he has to believe there will be. He has to believe that Eiji will do the impossible. He _wants_ to believe that Eiji will gather the broken pieces of medal, and then he will scour the world for the secrets that first gave it life, and then—

When he comes back—

It's a good thought to end on as Eiji settles into the arms of their friends, the people who have fought and loved and lived beside them, and Ankh hopes the thoughts he wakes to will be just as good.

+1

Eiji holds the two fragments of medal tight in his right hand.

Today is going to be the day. After over a decade of searching, over a decade of disappointment and frustration and _wanting_, they're finally here. They've finally found what they think will _work_, and they have a plan to go forward with.

Lifting his right hand, Eiji breathes on the fragments of medal. He already kissed them, before he arrived at the Kougami Foundation. They were cool against his lips, the opposite of how he expects Ankh would have felt. It can't hurt to give a little bit more of his hopes to the shards, though, and so many cultures think that hopes and wishes can be transmitted with breath... it's no sillier than a thousand other things he's tried.

Kougami bows to him, just a shallow inclination of the old man's back. It's more than Eiji would expect, but Kougami has been kind and respectful with him ever since Maki's defeat.

There are other people gathered. Date and Gotou are both present. Hina stands by her brother, though she reaches out a hand towards Eiji as soon as he appears, and Eiji happily takes it, settling in at her side.

There are people Eiji doesn't know. They are alchemists and scientists, mystics and medics, gathered for this moment.

Holding his right hand out, Eiji shows them the medal fragments.

He never thought his hand could feel as cold as it does when the shards are gone.

It doesn't take long. This is the culmination of all their work, and most of it was prepared before Eiji even arrived.

Hina holds his hand tight, and Shingo nods to him politely, but Eiji can't take his eyes away from where the medal sits.

Does it twitch? Is it moving? Or is that only his hope? Except... no. There is red light, growing steadily brighter, until Eiji can't see _anything_ despite not moving his head at all—

And then he doesn't need to see, because he can feel hands. He's still not used to there being two, but he recognizes the combination of scales and feathers, and he answers to them eagerly.

Perhaps he shouldn't. Perhaps he should worry that Ankh will be lost, or disoriented, or amnesiac. But he has spent over a decade worrying, and Ankh is back, and Eiji just gives himself over to the embrace.

Lips find his, and it's just as fierce and aggressive as he has dreamed, just as warm and tender as he could desire.

Date whistles. Gotou makes a nervous sound. Hina laughs, a wild, exuberant peel of joy to seal this moment.

Kougami screams out, _"Happy birthday!"_, and Eiji has never been happier to hear the words in his life.


End file.
